diff --git a/telethon/extensions/markdown.py b/telethon/extensions/markdown.py
index cb54c99e..5274dc85 100644
--- a/telethon/extensions/markdown.py
+++ b/telethon/extensions/markdown.py
@@ -5,15 +5,12 @@ since they seem to count as two characters and it's a bit strange.
 """
 import re
 
+from ..helpers import add_surrogate, del_surrogate
 from ..tl import TLObject
 from ..tl.types import (
     MessageEntityBold, MessageEntityItalic, MessageEntityCode,
     MessageEntityPre, MessageEntityTextUrl
 )
-from ..utils import (
-    add_surrogate as _add_surrogate,
-    del_surrogate as _del_surrogate
-)
 
 DEFAULT_DELIMITERS = {
     '**': MessageEntityBold,
@@ -57,7 +54,7 @@ def parse(message, delimiters=None, url_re=None):
 
     # Work on byte level with the utf-16le encoding to get the offsets right.
     # The offset will just be half the index we're at.
-    message = _add_surrogate(message)
+    message = add_surrogate(message)
     while i < len(message):
         if url_re and current is None:
             # If we're not inside a previous match since Telegram doesn't allow
@@ -73,7 +70,7 @@ def parse(message, delimiters=None, url_re=None):
 
                 result.append(MessageEntityTextUrl(
                     offset=url_match.start(), length=len(url_match.group(1)),
-                    url=_del_surrogate(url_match.group(2))
+                    url=del_surrogate(url_match.group(2))
                 ))
                 i += len(url_match.group(1))
                 # Next loop iteration, don't check delimiters, since
@@ -128,7 +125,7 @@ def parse(message, delimiters=None, url_re=None):
             + message[current.offset:]
         )
 
-    return _del_surrogate(message), result
+    return del_surrogate(message), result
 
 
 def unparse(text, entities, delimiters=None, url_fmt=None):
@@ -156,7 +153,7 @@ def unparse(text, entities, delimiters=None, url_fmt=None):
     else:
         entities = tuple(sorted(entities, key=lambda e: e.offset, reverse=True))
 
-    text = _add_surrogate(text)
+    text = add_surrogate(text)
     delimiters = {v: k for k, v in delimiters.items()}
     for entity in entities:
         s = entity.offset
@@ -167,8 +164,8 @@ def unparse(text, entities, delimiters=None, url_fmt=None):
         elif isinstance(entity, MessageEntityTextUrl) and url_fmt:
             text = (
                 text[:s] +
-                _add_surrogate(url_fmt.format(text[s:e], entity.url)) +
+                add_surrogate(url_fmt.format(text[s:e], entity.url)) +
                 text[e:]
             )
 
-    return _del_surrogate(text)
+    return del_surrogate(text)
diff --git a/telethon/helpers.py b/telethon/helpers.py
index de66813f..9c3bb116 100644
--- a/telethon/helpers.py
+++ b/telethon/helpers.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 """Various helpers not related to the Telegram API itself"""
 import os
+import struct
 from hashlib import sha1, sha256
 
 
@@ -17,6 +18,20 @@ def ensure_parent_dir_exists(file_path):
     if parent:
         os.makedirs(parent, exist_ok=True)
 
+
+def add_surrogate(text):
+    return ''.join(
+        # SMP -> Surrogate Pairs (Telegram offsets are calculated with these).
+        # See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(Unicode)#Overview for more.
+        ''.join(chr(y) for y in struct.unpack('<HH', x.encode('utf-16le')))
+        if (0x10000 <= ord(x) <= 0x10FFFF) else x for x in text
+    )
+
+
+def del_surrogate(text):
+    return text.encode('utf-16', 'surrogatepass').decode('utf-16')
+
+
 # endregion
 
 # region Cryptographic related utils
diff --git a/telethon/utils.py b/telethon/utils.py
index 2dcd086e..fb0b9ce5 100644
--- a/telethon/utils.py
+++ b/telethon/utils.py
@@ -7,13 +7,12 @@ import math
 import mimetypes
 import os
 import re
-import struct
 import types
 from collections import UserList
 from mimetypes import guess_extension
 
 from .extensions import markdown, html
-from .tl import TLObject
+from .helpers import add_surrogate, del_surrogate
 from .tl.types import (
     Channel, ChannelForbidden, Chat, ChatEmpty, ChatForbidden, ChatFull,
     ChatPhoto, InputPeerChannel, InputPeerChat, InputPeerUser, InputPeerEmpty,
@@ -586,19 +585,6 @@ def _fix_peer_id(peer_id):
     return int(peer_id)
 
 
-def add_surrogate(text):
-    return ''.join(
-        # SMP -> Surrogate Pairs (Telegram offsets are calculated with these).
-        # See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(Unicode)#Overview for more.
-        ''.join(chr(y) for y in struct.unpack('<HH', x.encode('utf-16le')))
-        if (0x10000 <= ord(x) <= 0x10FFFF) else x for x in text
-    )
-
-
-def del_surrogate(text):
-    return text.encode('utf-16', 'surrogatepass').decode('utf-16')
-
-
 def get_inner_text(text, entities):
     """
     Gets the inner text that's surrounded by the given entities.